Rough Old-Time Mountain Folk Make The Best Music

this is david hoffman documentary filmmaker bird by my side about to share with you one of the most memorable moments in my filmmaking career that's now 58 years and i filmed this within the first year of my professional career 1965. so i want you to go back with me at that time because you're going to see a fiddle player i think it's one of the greatest fiddle players i ever heard but the moment in time unbelievable so i'm a new york city filmmaker and i read about this guy bascom lunsford a old-timey mountain music historian who runs a festival in asheville i think it was called the mountain dance and folk festival and i write him and i say i'd like to make a film on you and he'd never had a film made on him a and b more interesting who's this guy from new york city young filmmaker sure he says come on down and i'll take you around and show you some of my best performers now you're in for seeing some good country because i'm going to show you a lot of this territory where our friends live and where they know the old balance and know about our mountain dances i think you're gonna enjoy this go down with bascom and his wife freda hit the road with them and day after day we visit unbelievable people i'm in ecstasy this is wonderful music wonderful characters so different from the culture i came from a dream and one day we get up we go to baskin's house he says david i'm going to drive you over to wilkes county turn to the left right in here and go this old somewhere and go this old road that i believe that's the road we want to go now right there this is right up here where he crossed this road where ernest crawford got killed have i ever been here honey you've never been here with me i don't think so never been here with me so we get there and we don't know exactly how to get to the house of lost john jesse lost john ray repeated to be the best fiddler in the whole area and uh so bascom has some kid you go up this hill yeah and then you pass a green house yeah that's where i live you go straight up on another hill yeah when you cut a curve and go down the second road not the first one that goes down towards the other house but the second one it's up above that first one down here you go up there and then you keep going there's a rock house up and you stop that rock house mess with their house now thank you boys that's fine that's fine that helps us out a whole lot okay so we're on our way bascom brings along ray lunsford a banjo picker relative of his and we arrive at poverty real poverty poorer than any other people i had seen at that point up in the corner is lost john's wife dressed in a poor outfit there are two very strange looking children maybe early teens lost john comes right over to us introduces himself he's strange looking he's uneducated i find out that his mother and father may have been closely related but there's no prejudice against him not for his poverty not for his difficult upbringing not for the fact that he was barely surviving but for the charm of the man and the kindness of the man and the openness to just be with us and sit down and play so some chairs are put out we sit down and we begin to play now all i have today is what you are about to see there was much more to it but i threw out the outtakes can you believe that bascom told me later when i asked him what made lost john so great he said lost john plays the fiddle with a bit of raw a bit of a bit of how hard life is a bit of like you got to get down to the roots of it he said at the same time it's like a morning spring where the fog is lifting and the fiddle is just playing at the same time raw and gentle and beautiful that's why i call this the greatest fiddler i ever heard baskim taught me how to listen and i [Music] didn't know how long [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] why did you call him lost john well engaged on that i don't know how come to give her my name john well man or no woman gave me that moment sherry county right right right yeah uh uh we used to cut timber for me and my daddy and and uh roy hole used to play you remember him oh yeah yeah and his works meal at the same time i was and and then none of them didn't know i could play at all i'd say you know i just started working they kept bringing their instruments it was about every day at 12 o'clock and playing something no they'd ask you huh no oh one day i said to roy i believe i want to see your feelings if you don't mind i'll go ahead you know oh well i cut loose on something no man i know what it says there's your squared eggs man it's lost john and it's been a good one ever since [Music] i'm [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey i got a letter here just the other day i want me to come you message his total favorite convention oh jesus yeah it is gosh i couldn't afford it fries but it cost me more than that to get out there i can't stand there trying to figure out something more i like this video johnny has gotten that old tune what's called a weeping welder i had a jacob steamer you see that and i'll tell you what when i first got that thing it was old at the same point points over the top of rotten you know [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] [Music] yep [Music] it occurred to me that uh long ago you're speaking about this being a lovely country and i said it didn't wonder that the uh mountain boy gets homesick when he gets away from home and hits the rough edges of the world and uh of course that prompted the song blue ridge mountain blues that's known pretty well in folklore [Music] blue ridge mountains blues and i stand right up and say my grip is pegged for travel and i'm scratching gravel to that blue ridge far away i know the day that i return there'll be a shindig in the barn the folks from rouse around will come there'll be some fiddlers in the storm i got the blue ridge mountain blues and i stand right up and say my grip it paint for travel and i'm scratching devil all that blue bridge is far away

Channel: David Hoffman

Views: 1,012,361

Rating: 4.9341412 out of 5

Keywords: David Hoffman filmmaker, classic bluegrass, mountain music, old-time music, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, North Carolina history, Appalachian history, Appalachian music, North Carolina music, American music history, best bluegrass, best clog dancing, fiddlers convention, Wilkes County, bluegrass music Festival, David Hoffman music documentary, Ken Burns country music, 1960s music documentary, Kentucky music, West Virginia music, Tennessee music, southern mountains

Id: GrSl6r0hZpk

Length: 11min 35sec (695 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020

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